Details: Pretty average vis and high current at Popes Eye today. I just sat on the corner and took some fish portraits. The usual suspects were around. Victorian Scaly Fin, Boarfish, Six-spined Leatherjacket, Shaws Cowfish.

Details: Ordinary conditions at Popes Eye. The white-barred Boxfish put in another showing as well as a juvenile Western Blue Grouper. Another interesting sighting was a cod sitting in a gap in the rocks..possibly injured.

Details: A fairly horrible dive at Popes eye today on ebb slack. Dirty green water with loads of current…so obviously not slack! I’d commented earlier on the lack of rays that hang around Popes Eye, however today there were three stingarees sheltering in the rock wall. It would be great if they came inside the eye on a crystal clear day!

Details: The highlight on this dive at Popes Eye was the sighting of a White-Barred Boxfish (Anoplocapros lenticularis), also know as Humpback Boxfish, not a common sighting in Port Phillip Bay. In fact the only sighting i’ve had in Victoria was down at Portland. Their distribution has been pushing further east lately it seems with more sightings in Port Phillip and Western Port bay. Many authorities put their eastern most limits at Lorne, Victoria.

A couple of Nudibranchs and a close approach of a Southern Seacarp and Snook made this a good critter dive.

Details: Crystal Clear water and zero wind at Popes Eye today making for marvelous conditions for diving. I tried some under-overs at the start of the dive of the gannet colony and the light patterns on the sand. After decent, i went out the front of the eye to the sand bank which made for a change to the usual dive at Popes eye. On the corner a large school of Salmon swam overhead forcing a new perspective on a dive site i’ve done a number of times. Overall a great dive, and it really showed how conditions can make a dive site great.

Details: Surprisingly, Popes was as dirty as i’d ever seen it. Probably due to the high current carving sand and weed off the wall and banks and creating little eddy tornado of muck. A seal came in for a close look at why a human was diving these conditions. Not a great days diving..

Details: A lovely day on the bay with dolphins, seals, gannets and a couple of divers all enjoying the silky surface of port phillip bay. The seals were going bezerk at Chinamans Hat. Dolphins were rising the bows of ships, and a Blue-throated Wrasse showed my why it was named as such.

Details: On the way back from portsea, we stopped off for a quick dive to see if we could spot any Warty Prowfish at Popes Eye which were apparently also showing well this time of year. No luck, but a couple of Gurnard Perch allowed me to hassle them for a while.

Details: I rarely get out the 17-40mm Canon lens, but i decided it might be a good lens for some fish portraits, so i took it to popes eye to test it out. It performed fairly well, but only because the visiblity was reasonable. Otherwise it doesn’t really allow you to get close enough to get good colour and sharpness.

Details: Conditions were much nicer topside than underwater at Popes today, so the telephoto lens came out to snap some Gannet photos. A cuttlefish was still a good underwater subject, and a blubber jelly floated inside the annulus. Chris wanted to play with the Seals at Chinamans Hat but the Seals mustn’t of liked the look of his new camera, and he came out with a seal phobia after a few aggressive barks in his face. It made me glad i stayed topside.

Details: Lovely visibility at Popes Eye. We dived the southern side and had a very tame cuttlefish allowing me to stroke it on the head…itonly batted an eye lid to show how much it was enjoying the treatment. Loads of fish around as usual.

Details: We headed to Popes Eye for the second dive, and Harry came for a dive after skippering the Kelp Beds Reef dive. We found an old bottle which was pretty interesting..must be from the William Salthouse.

Details: I decided to check out the western side of the annulus and came across the admiralty anchor. Trying to get back around the front of the wall after finishing the dive was near impossible. I felt like a cartoon character clinging to the rocks face first into the current with my legs trailing behind me. The currents got to be respected here, and always a good idea to have boat pickups available.